


Mother's Day

by SeraBee



Category: Emmerdale
Genre: Domestic Fluff, F/F, Family Fluff, Fluff and Angst
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-02-08
Updated: 2020-02-08
Packaged: 2021-02-28 06:27:22
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22619359
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SeraBee/pseuds/SeraBee
Summary: Set after the upcoming kidnap storyline - Noah has a mother's day present for Vanessa.
Relationships: Charity Dingle/Vanessa Woodfield
Comments: 3
Kudos: 125





	Mother's Day

**Author's Note:**

> Constructive criticism is welcomed as I'm still getting the hang of this fic writing malarkey! Any tips or suggestions would be gratefully received.

Charity turned the key in the lock and then tugged at the handle a few times to make sure it was locked. A habit she had only recently picked up because Ness had required the reassurance that they were safe. That nobody could get in and hurt them. Even with Pierce now in jail and awaiting trial for his crimes, Vanessa was still convinced that he would somehow escape and come back for her.

Charity sighed and rubbed the bridge of her nose with thumb and forefinger. She wished more than anything that she could say something or do something that would convince Vanessa that she was safe now, but the trauma was still fresh and probably would be for a long time.

Turning off the lights and checking that the windows are secure in the kitchen, she is just about to head up to bed when she notices Noah standing silently at the bottom of the stairs, watching her.

“Hey, you not tired?” she asks, raising one eyebrow as she notices he looks suspiciously nervous about something.

“I wanted to talk to you about something,” he mumbles, captivated by the hole in his sock that his big toe is sticking out of.

Charity sighs. It isn’t often that Noah seeks her out to talk about something that’s on his mind, usually preferring to brood and mope about until she forces it out of him.

“Well, will it take long? I don’t think we should leave Ness on her own for too long.”

He offers her a small smile of understanding and Charity knows that he understands more than he should have to. To be honest, if it hadn’t been for Noah, she’s not sure she could have coped for the last few weeks. Like her, he hadn’t wanted to leave Ness’ side since she came home from the hospital and he’d been more than willing to sit with her whenever Charity needed to run errands or check in at the pub.

“It’s just that, you know mother’s day is this Sunday, right?”

“Is it? To be honest Noah, I didn’t. I’d completely forgotten about it with everything else going on.”

“Well, the thing is… I got Ness something for her birthday but she was still in the hospital on her birthday and I didn’t think she’d really appreciate it. So I was thinking about giving it to her on mother’s day instead… but I just wanted to check that, you know, if you think she’ll like it.”

Charity felt her heart swell with pride. It never failed to amaze her just how kind and thoughtful Noah could be. How had she, of all people, managed to raise such a gentleman?

“I think Ness will love anything you give her on mother’s day, Noah. What did you get her?”

Noah reaches into the front pocket of his hoodie and pulls out a simple, brown envelope. He stares at it for a second before handing it to his mum. Charity wonders what type of gift could possibly fit into such a tiny envelope. Perhaps gift vouchers, or tickets to a show, she muses. When she opens the unsealed envelope and pulls out the piece of paper inside however, she almost bursts into tears. She brings one hand to her mouth to stifle the cry of emotion that threatens to erupt.

“Oh, Noah, it’s perfect!” she exclaims.

He grins at her reaction, but then seems to remember what he was worrying about.

“It’s just that with everything that has happened, I don’t know if she will like it.”

Charity understood his concern. Right now, there wasn’t much space in Vanessa’s mind that hadn’t been completely taken over by Pierce and the nightmare she had just lived through. The Vanessa from before the kidnapping would have been completely overwhelmed by Noah’s gift, but right now, they weren’t sure when that Vanessa was coming back.

“I honestly don’t know if she’s well enough to appreciate it right now Noah, but I think there’s a pretty good chance it could be exactly what she needs.”

He nods thoughtfully as he takes back the piece of paper and envelope from his mum.

“Well if there’s a chance it will be good for her, I’m going to give it to her,” he decides emphatically.

Charity smiles softly at her son before wrapping him up in a tight hug. He pretends to hate it, of course, but she knows he needs it just as much as she does.

“Okay kiddo, let’s go and see to our patient.”

**********************************

Moses and Johnny wake them up on Sunday, climbing into the bed between them brandishing cards that they’ve made at nursery. Noah watches them from the doorway to make sure they don’t crush them before heading back to his room.

“Mummy, wake up!” Moses yells, hitting Charity over the head with the badly folded piece of card.

“Happy mum’s day!” exclaims Johnny, jumping around excitedly before throwing himself onto the pillows between their heads.

Vanessa wakes with a start and scrambles into a sitting position with a look of panic on her face. Charity, who had only been pretending to still be asleep, senses the movement of the other woman and instinctively reaches out to place a hand reassuringly on Vanessa’s arm.

“It’s okay babe, it’s just the boys. We’re safe.”

Vanessa’s grabs hold of Charity’s hand and squeezes it gently, reassuring herself that she is there. Johnny crawls over and throws his arms around his mother’s shoulders, enveloping her in a big hug. Charity eases herself up into a sitting position without letting go of Vanessa’s hand, leans over and kisses her softly on the cheek.

“Happy mother’s day, babe,” she whispers.

It takes a few minutes for Vanessa’s breathing to return to normal, but once it does, she makes a conscious effort to be present in the moment as the boys wave their cards around excitedly.

Charity takes Moses’ card first and makes sure Vanessa can see it too. He has drawn both of them on the front of the card and has obviously asked his teacher to write ‘mummy’ and ‘Ness’ under the appropriate drawings. On the inside, the teacher’s careful print has also written whatever message Moses has dictated: “I love my mummy’s” is all that it says.

“Oh Moses,” Vanessa gasps, clearly overwhelmed with emotion. “This is a beautiful card darling,” she manages to say before her breath hitches and tears start to form.

“Yeah Moz, you did a great job!” adds Charity, “I especially love how my arms are growing out of my ears on this picture!”

Moses giggles and Vanessa elbows her gently in the ribs before turning to Johnny who proudly hands over his creation.

Despite only being 3 months younger than Moses, they are a whole school year apart and clearly the teachers in the nursery class are far more creative than those in reception. Johnny’s card has bits of dried pasta, sequins and pipe cleaners stuck all over the front of the card in such a way that spells ‘Mum’. Obviously the teachers had written the word in glue before getting the kids to throw all manner of crap onto the front of it. Inside, they have stuck a picture of Johnny in the sand pit and, just like with Moses, have written out the message for him.

Johnny’s card reads: “I love my mummy and my Charity because they love me.”

Vanessa’s silent tears turn into sobs as she reads Johnny’s card. Charity weaves an arm around her shoulders, pulling her in gently and pressing her lips into her hair. Vanessa lets her head fall onto Charity’s shoulder as she tries to wipe away the tears.

“Don’t you like my card mummy?” Johnny asks her, perplexed at the tears.

“Oh, I love both of these cards boys. Mummy just has some happy tears, that’s all.”

Charity knows that the reasons behind Vanessa’s tears are far more complex than ‘happy’ or ‘sad’ right now. If she had to place a bet, she’d guess that Vanessa had, on more than one occasion, wondered if she’d even see mother’s day or get to enjoy moments like this again with her children. She still hadn’t managed to tell Charity all that Pierce had said and done, but Charity could see her fourteen year old self in Vanessa’s eyes sometimes and remembered all too clearly how it felt to still be trapped and terrified even after escaping the clutches of someone like Pierce or Bails.

“Do you want to come downstairs today babe?” she asked gently. For the first week of being home from hospital, Vanessa had only left their bedroom to go to the toilet, but for the last week she had started to venture downstairs for short periods of time. Now, Vanessa eyed the door to their bedroom suspiciously and shook her head.

“Maybe later,” she whispered.

Charity didn’t push her. The doctors at the hospital had taken her aside and had tried to impress upon her just how long it might take Vanessa to get back to normal. Although Charity was no stranger to trauma, she hadn’t had the luxury of a safe bed to sleep in whilst she ‘recovered’, so the process of actually helping someone through an ordeal like this was new ground for her.

“Shall I go and make us some tea, then?” she offered, but Vanessa grabbed hold of her arm, preventing her from throwing back the duvet and leaving.

“Can you ask Noah?” she pleaded, tears of frustration at her own fear spilling down her cheeks.

“Of course babe,” Charity soothed, before asking Johnny and Moses to go and get Noah. After a few minutes, he appeared in the doorway again. She didn’t even have to ask him.

“Do you guys want a brew?” he asked, smiling softly at Vanessa who nodded her thanks.

When he returned with two hot cups of tea, he plonked himself down on the end of the bed. His eyes met Charity’s and she nodded at him reassuringly. Given Vanessa’s reaction to the school made cards of the boys, she was even more confident that Noah’s present would be a hit.

Noah cleared his throat and Charity watched carefully as Ness looked at him expectantly.

“I got you something Ness, for mother’s day. I hope you don’t mind.”

Vanessa looked astonished, her eyes flitting from Noah to Charity, as if she couldn’t quite believe what she was hearing. It was one thing for Moses to see her as a 2nd mum as she’d been around for almost half of his life, but Noah had spent far more years without her than he had with her and she had only ever been ‘Ness’ to him – never ‘mum’. There had been that day, shortly after she’d broken up with Charity last November, when he’d said she was the best step-parent he’d ever had, but that had seemed to be a fluke, an attempt to get her to forgive his mum and come back home.

Noah watches her like a hawk, trying to read her expression, and is horrified when he sees her starting to cry. For the last three weeks, Vanessa has cried so much that he’s almost gotten used to seeing her like that, but he really doesn’t want his gift to be a part of that sadness. More than anything, he wants his gift to make at least a little bit of that sadness go away. He looks at his mum desperately and Charity squeezes Vanessa a little tighter.

“You’re not sad that Noah got you something, are you Ness?” she asks quietly.

Seeming to register suddenly that she is crying and that Noah is scared, she wipes at her eyes with the sleeve of her pyjamas and shakes her head.

“No, no, no… of course not, I’m not sad Noah,” she assures him. “I’m just a bit emotional, but they are mostly good emotions, I promise,”

Noah seems reassured by this and with a deep breath, he reaches into his pocket and removes the tiny brown envelope, passing it to Vanessa who eyes it curiously.

Charity holds her breath as Vanessa’s fingers tremble at the opening of the envelope, freeing the piece of paper from inside. She unfolds it gently and her eyes skim over its contents several times as if she can’t quite believe what she’s reading.

When the penny finally drops, so does the piece of paper as both of Vanessa’s hands fly up to her mouth in shock.

“Noah, are you… are you absolutely sure this is what you want?” she asks, reaching out to grab hold of his hand. He nods shyly.

“I’ve wanted to ask you for a long time,” he admits. “All I ever wanted growing up was a proper dad. You know, one that wasn’t dead, or completely insane. When you and mum got together, I didn’t like you very much at first.”

Vanessa stifles a giggle, clearly remembering the toast incident when Noah had told her as much. Noah’s face lights up as she laughs and Charity thinks its perhaps the first time she’s smiled since she’s been home.

“Anyway,” he continues. “you might not be a dad, but you’re the best step-parent I’ve ever had. You make my mum happy and you’ve made us into a proper little family. I want you to be my family forever Ness, which is why I’d really like it if you would… I mean, you know, if you wanted to of course… maybe adopt me?”

Vanessa opened her mouth as if to speak, but the words simply refused to form. Instead, she crawled across the bed until she was kneeling next to Noah and she wrapped her arms around him tightly. He returned the hug with only a hint of awkwardness, and Charity noticed that both of them were getting tearful. Eventually, after a few moments of frantic hugging and silence, he pulled away.

“Was that a yes?” he asked tentatively, still afraid that she might say no.

“Oh, Noah!” she managed to say. “Of course it’s a yes, I would love to be your mum!”

Moses and Johnny, who had miraculously stayed quiet through Noah’s little speech now wanted to join in with the hugs. Four little arms reached out and grabbed hold of Ness as she sat back, staring at the adoption forms in her hand with a look of pure amazement on her face. Charity and Noah looked at each other and smiled. This was the closest they had gotten to seeing a bit of the old Vanessa lately, and it felt pretty amazing to see her smiling and excited about something.

Charity knew that it wouldn’t last forever and that eventually the nightmares would seep back in, but for now, she was simply grateful for the confirmation that her Vanessa wasn’t completely lost. She was in there somewhere and together, as a family, they were going to get her back.


End file.
